Minecraft: Commence in Zero
by Lavender Moonlight in the Snow
Summary: When I have to stay with my father for the summer, my stepbrother introduces me to a game called Minecraft. He invites me to play on his server, and there I learn about the Project: Operation Commence in Zero.
1. Minecraft

_I do not own Minecraft (Notch does, I believe, since he made the game) but I do claim the unique characters and plot of this Fanfiction. I was inspired to write it because of the game, and hope that it is a decent tribute. The purpose of this Fanfiction is to amuse, and I make no profit from it whatsoever. Also worth noting is that the names I use in this Fanfiction are made up, and if they happen to be the names of real users then the happenstance is purely coincidental._

Without my wonderful beta reader, Kitsune no Tora, I don't think I would have had the guts to post this story. She deserves many thanks. I also suppose I should thank paulsoaresjr (though I doubt he reads Fanfiction) for posting Minecraft videos on YouTube. It was after watching a few that I decided I needed the game.

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**Minecraft: Commence in Zero**

**Chapter One – Minecraft**

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Rain splattered up against the window of the car as my dad drove me through the busy streets of Baltimore. I found the foul weather befitting of my mood and the past two weeks had been a nightmare. No matter what I did, I couldn't wake up.

When my mom told me that, for work, she would be spending most of the summer abroad I was put into a state of shock and disbelief. What, exactly, did she plan to do with me? Fourteen-year-old girls weren't exactly allowed to live alone for two months.

"You'll be living with your father's family this summer," Mom told me as I goggled at her, unsure of whether or not I had heard her correctly. "He has agreed to watch you. It'll be nice. You can get to know him again, and get to know Jamie and Asher."

This was coming from the woman who thought of my father's second wife as a deflated sorority girl and had divorced my father six years ago because she thought he was too unpleasant to be around. His quiet personality didn't mesh well with her outgoing, bubbly one. I, for the most part, took after my dad, though I didn't shrink to the wall in a crowd either.

"The last time I saw Dad was Thanksgiving," I had pointed out. My parents had miraculously stopped bickering long enough to plan the event for my sake. It was supposed to be good for me to see both parents at once. I had seen my dad for a total of five hours before he and his family had departed for the hotel.

"I know that, sweetie. But it will still be good for you to see your father this summer."

The conversation had ended there. I had wanted to argue, but my mom's boss had called to discuss the upcoming trip and I knew better than to disrupt her while she was on the phone with him. Two weeks later, I found myself on a plane bound for Baltimore. The entire state of Maryland seemed to be covered in a cloud of rain when I arrived.

"You've grown," my father said. I saw him glance back at me with the rear view mirror. I had insisted on sitting in the back seat even though he had offered me shotgun.

"Maybe," I muttered in response.

"Jamie made up the spare bedroom for you last night. I think you'll like the room. The closet is mostly used for storage, but we can move stuff around on an as needed basis."

"Okay."

Dad seemed to give up on trying to talk to me. I was fine with that. Sighing, I leaned my head against the window of the car and closed my eyes. Maybe I would wake up and find that the past two weeks had been a dream?

I opened my eyes again when my dad stopped the car. I hadn't slept, though I'd pretended to sleep just in case my dad decided to talk again. We hurried with the wet task of unloading my luggage from the trunk of the car and dragging it up the walkway and into the house. As I had feared, Jamie was there to greet us. She had dinner in the oven and wanted to know if there was anything she could do for me.

"Uh, can I just unpack?" I asked, doing my best not to sound too rude. Jamie, like my mom, was very bubbly – though in a completely different way. I found her personality annoying. Then again, I might have found my own mom annoying if I didn't live with her.

"Of course! I'll just show you to your room," Jamie said, helping me carry my bags upstairs. To my relief, she left afterwards. I began to unpack my things, putting the clothes in the drawers and shoving my DS and a tangle of various charger cords onto the tiny bedside table. While I was working I heard a car pull into the driveway, and the front door open and close a minute later. My stepbrother had come home.

Jamie called me down for dinner just as I finished lining my bags up against the wall. Dad hadn't lied – the closet was so full of boxes that I had feared an impending avalanche upon looking into it. I'd quickly closed the door and figured that putting my empty bags away wasn't too high on my imaginary list of things to do.

I timidly entered the kitchen and quietly slid into the closest empty seat. Jamie had set everything out on the table – fish filets, broccoli, and pasta. Everything smelled good.

My dad took the seat to my left, smiling at me. "Jamie's a wonderful cook, Laurie," he assured me. I said nothing, not really confident enough around my dad and his wife to respond. Instead I watched as a black-and-white cat crept under the table and rolled onto its back.

"That's Minnie," Jamie said, taking the seat across from me. "She's sweet, but might scratch if you try and lift her. Only Asher can pick her up without getting clawed."

"Where did he go – he was here a second ago!" Dad said, glancing through the doorway into the empty living room. He then made a grunting sound. "Wait, I know where he is. That boy's addicted I'll tell you . . ."

"He holds a full time summer job, Lewis," Jamie said. "What he does in his free time is up to him."

My dad grunted. "Asher! You can play after dinner! Come and eat!" he called through the house. Minnie ran from under the table into the next room. I heard someone climb the basement stairs, and a moment later Asher appeared. He took a seat on my right and then shot my father a vexed look.

"I said I'd be back in a minute. There's no need to yell," Asher mumbled. He looked to his mom briefly before reaching for the broccoli bowl, starting the meal. I began to scoop pasta onto my plate since the dish was closest to me. I then passed the bowl to my father and took the broccoli from Asher as he handed it to me.

"Asher is addicted to this game of his," my father said. "Minecraft."

"What I do in my free time is none of your concern," Asher said simply. "Would you rather I did drugs or drank underage? There are much worse hobbies, Lewis."

"What do you do in your free time, Laurie?" Jamie asked me, trying to diffuse the tension between her husband and son. I was not pleased to be put on the spot.

"I draw a bit. I read a bit. I play games." To my annoyance, my mom had not let me take my Wii to Dad's. I had succeeded in packing my DS, though.

"Not you as well," my dad said, rolling his eyes.

"Do you play Minecraft?" Asher asked, glancing at me. My stepbrother was a rough-looking rising college sophomore. He had similar features to his mom, the same curly brown hair and eyes.

"I've never even heard of it," I replied, starting to eat after filling my plate with food.

"Really? That's too bad," Asher said, turning back to his meal. Jamie then changed the conversation, deciding to ask her husband how work was going. I listened, though my mind wandered at the same time. Mom would be leaving the house for her overnight flight sometime soon. She had said she would call when she arrived, though with her scattered brains I didn't expect to hear from her until Tuesday.

I noticed that Asher successfully left the table without saying anything after he finished eating, depositing his empty plate in the sink, so I did the same when my meal was done. I then moved into the family room, eying Minnie from a distance. She narrowed yellow eyes at me. I stuck my tongue out at her. Mom hadn't mentioned that Dad's family had a cat. I'd never had a pet before. She was allergic, so we couldn't have any pets.

"What'd she do to you?"

Asher caught me making faces at Minnie. I snapped my tongue back into my mouth, shrugging. My stepbrother gave me a funny look and then headed into the basement. I hesitated, then followed him, glancing back into the kitchen before doing so. Jamie and Dad were still talking and didn't notice my descent.

The basement was finished and had been turned into a sitting room, but Asher was nowhere to be found. I began to walk around, glancing at the titles on the bookshelf. Something moved behind me, and I saw Minnie dart down the stairs and through a cracked door on one side of the room. Curious, I followed her.

I found Asher in a study of sorts. Two long tables were up against the walls on the side of the room with three computers between them. A hanging shelf was covered in books lying on their side. A couple of pictures hung on the otherwise empty walls. Minnie had taken up residence in a pink cat bed tucked in the corner by the chair where my stepbrother sat.

Asher didn't seem too surprised to see me. He was on the largest of the computers, one of the two desktops, playing a game. I stood back to watch him as he typed some stuff into a chat feed. Other people responded to him. Then Asher began to move, looking away from the wall he had previously been staring at on his game and facing a skeleton. I squeaked.

Smirking, Asher said, "That's not a monster, that's his skin," without bothering to look at me.

I said nothing. After talking some more to the skeleton guy, he closed the chat window and then spared me a glance. "This is Minecraft. Wanna try it?"

"Why not?" I said.

Asher nodded to the second desktop. "That's my old computer. Turn it on and then run the game. Make sure to put it on Peaceful otherwise you won't last very long. Do singleplayer."

Silently, I took a seat in the indicated chair and turned on the computer. The old Mac hummed to life, and within a minute I was on the desktop. Minecraft was easy enough to locate. I opened the game. It asked for a password to accompany the name 'Asherforce.'

"Minnie," Asher said quickly. I typed in the cat's name and got to the main screen of the game after opting to play offline. I clicked singleplayer. Slot five was free. I clicked that.

"Put the game in Peaceful," Asher reminded me. "It's on Hard."

My character was dropped in the middle of Antarctica. I hit the P button repeatedly, trying to pause the game. When nothing happened I began to panic until Asher reached over and hit escape. The game paused.

"Look at the controls while you're here," Asher advised. "WASD, not arrow keys, for movement. Spacebar to jump, et cetera."

Meekly I switched the game mode from Hard to Peaceful and then went back to check the controls. I then went back to the game and looked around. As far as I could see, the world on my game was covered in snow.

"Get wood, make planks, make a workbench, make sticks, make tools, find coal, make torches, and then make shelter. Try to do all of this before nightfall. That would be when the monsters would spawn and attack you if you were playing a level with monsters," Asher said, not bothering to look away from his own computer as he instructed me.

I was thoroughly overwhelmed, leading me to feel panicked. I began to repeatedly tap the spacebar and W button, bouncing uncertainly into the unknown. I climbed a hill and saw a plateau of grass. A trio of trees was in the distance. I ran up to the trees and, after a moment, managed to begin digging at the blocks that made up the trunk of the nearest. It began to crumble. Smiling, I destroyed the entire trunk, reaching high into the branches for every last piece of wood. The leaves began to vanish as I moved to the next tree, destroying it as well before moving onto the last tree. When I was done I had amassed 14 wood blocks.

Struggling to remember what I was supposed to do next, I opened my inventory to stare at the fruits of my labor. Tentatively I moved the wood blocks to the crafting square and made 56 wooden planks. Then, after some experimenting, I managed to make sticks. I made 64 of them. That was the largest number I could keep in one square. After a moment more I discovered how to make a workbench, then excitedly returned to the game only to throw it across the ground. I picked it up again then more cautiously placed it on the dirt. I right-clicked onto it.

"What sort of tools should I make?" I asked.

"A pickaxe and a shovel." Asher spared a glance at my screen. "Whoa, you already made the workbench? I thought you'd ask when you were ready to do that. You're a natural with this game."

I bit my lip and turned back to my computer, Asher's praise making me feel giddy inside. Minecraft was a nice little game, and I was a natural. I played around with the workbench, guessing correctly that I would need sticks and wood to make the tools. I made two of each and then ran in the direction of the looming, irregularly shaped mountain in the distance, running over a few baby trees that had been floating at my feet and picking them up in the process.

The mountain grew before me. I hopped up to the edge, moving my mouse to give myself a better view of the thing. About ten blocks above my head were some stone pieces that were streaked with black. Could that be the coal that I desired? I began to dig into the wall with my pickaxe, finding the shovel to be useless. I would have that coal soon.

"Damn," Asher said after a moment, seemingly forgetting that I was there. I glanced at his screen and saw that he was talking again to someone else on his own game. He must have been doing the multiplayer mode. The message on the screen said that three people had just died because of something called a creeper.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, forgetting about the hole that I had begun to dig into the wall of my mountain.

"Yeah, three of my players just died."

I cocked my head, too new to Minecraft to understand why that could be a problem. It was just a game after all. Couldn't they just restart? "Can they restart?"

"Not for a week. My server is . . . unique. That's what makes it great. Only problem is that, while there's no short supply of people willing to collaborate on the Project, not many people are good enough players to last long enough to do much."

"Project?"

"I call it Operation Commence in Zero," Asher said, leaning back and stretching his arms before exiting out of the chat and moving out of the building he was in and down a ladder. I fixed my eyes on his screen, watching as he walked through a town of sorts as the world around him slowly started to darken.

"I've been playing Minecraft since the alpha was first released," Asher elaborated. "I even find the Hard mode easy now, and when I ventured online to join in on a multiplayer server I was too easily annoyed by all of the halfwits that play the game. I would make astounding structures only to have idiots grief – err, destroy – them. So I decided that I would make my own patch for the game to make it more fun for some of the more hardcore players out there like myself. The end result is my server, and O-CIZ. I only allow serious players onto the server to help with the Project, which is to find the gemstones that are hidden somewhere in the world. If we can find all twelve then we've won."

"Minecraft has gemstones?"

"Not the real game – well, aside from stuff like diamond and lapis lazuli for dying wool – only my server has the special gemstones and the other tweaks I've added." Asher smiled and slit his eyes smugly. "I'm a fair wiz at computers myself. It didn't take too terribly long to implement all my changes onto my server."

I glanced back at my game and then, remembering that I needed coal for my own game, began to play again. Asher had moved into a different building and crafted a book. He had then begun to type out a log in the book, which I found boring since I didn't understand the specifics.

"Have you found any of these gemstones yet?" I reached the coal and begun to excavate it from the wall. More coal was behind it, and I began to dig at that, too.

"We've found five," Asher said. "Spinel, Ruby, Emerald, Topaz, and Aquamarine. They are kept under heavy guard; because one of my tweaks is that the monsters on the server will try and steal them to return them to the place of their origin. In the case of Ruby, that was in the middle of a lava pool. Two people died just trying to extract it. Sevidracona returned a week later. Kwipplet didn't bother."

I made a dozen torches and then continued to bore into the side of the mountain, deciding to make a cave house. Night had fallen on my game, but with the light from my torches I wasn't worried. Though I didn't ask any more questions, Asher continued to talk.

"I suppose that Kwipplet didn't find the Project to be fun anymore. Many people do because of all the changes I made to the game. For instance, at noon every day, your character loses 2.5 hearts. That's easily regained by eating a piece of cooked pork or something, though that does mean that pork has to be cooked – and that pigs have to be slaughtered – around the clock just to keep up with demand. People also gotta eat when injured, and nights here are rough – especially around the fortresses where we keep the gemstones."

"Then just have someone run around and catch pigs all day," I suggested. My cave was quite large now. I blocked up the entrance with cobblestone and then cut a window out of a couple of blocks so I could look out. "Hey, what would happen if I turned on the monsters now?" I asked Asher.

Asher glanced at my screen. "A spider would climb through your window," he said simply. "Block up a hole. Then you'd be safe. Things would growl at you but they'd vanish with the sun so you'd be fine." Asher smiled. "Go ahead, change the game to Easy."

Feeling bold, I switched levels of my game. I then waited, pacing back and forth on my game until I heard footsteps. The most chilling sound I had ever heard emerged from my speakers, causing me to shiver. It was the sort of growl one would hear from . . . from . . .

"That's just a zombie," Asher said, sounding amused. "Hey, breathe, will you? Lewis would kill me if you suffocated yourself over this game."

I timidly reached out to my keyboard, pressed escape, set the game to Peaceful, and then began to breathe once more. "I don't like this game anymore," I declared.

Asher snorted. "Wimp."

I shot the boy a cruel stare. "That was horrible! I don't do scary stuff! I'm sure Minecraft is a great game, but it's not worth the nightly heart attacks when the monsters come out."

"Then play on Peaceful?"

I crossed my arms over my chest, debating the idea. The zombie had not growled since I had switched levels back on my game. I hoped that it had disappeared. It would be fun to build things with the blocks on the game . . . but I was mad at it for scaring me so badly and wasn't about to give Asher the satisfaction of continuing to play.

"Maybe later," I said stiffly. "Does this computer go online? Can I check my Facebook? I want to see if anyone noticed that I'm gone."

"Unless you have blind friends, I'm sure they noticed," Asher muttered. "But yes, it goes online. Plug in the yellow cord there and you'll get Internet. Lightning Internet, too, courtesy of yours truly since nobody else seems to understand what a wonderful thing it is."

"Jamie mentioned that you work. What do you do?"

"I fix computers. It pays well. You'd be surprised how technically challenged most people are."

"No, probably not. My mom can't do wired things. She doesn't know how to work the DVD player even. I do all the installations at my house."

I opened Firefox and was dumped onto Asher's homepage – Minecraft Wiki. Biting back the urge to snort, I opened a new tab and logged onto my Facebook. No new notifications. I clicked out of the window and then stared blackly at the Minecraft page. My fingers dragged the mouse slowly down to the F.A.Q.s link. I clicked.

Something rubbed against my leg, and I watched as Minnie began to divide her time between Asher and me. She began to meow persistently, done napping.

"Whaddya want?" Asher asked the cat. She mewed. He sighed and tapped his lap. She jumped into it and then Asher stood. "I'm gonna go give her ten minutes of outside time, back in a bit."

"Okay," I said. Asher left the room. I watched him leave and then shifted my gaze back to the computer screen. Had the cat read my mind? I had wanted a way to scan the Wiki site without Asher seeing me. Now I had the chance to read about Minecraft without him judging me as I did so.

I made the most of my golden opportunity. Nine minutes later I turned off the computer and walked out of the room as Asher returned, no longer oblivious to the world of Minecraft. Skimming did wonders. The next morning I went down to Asher's game room again, knowing he worked on Tuesdays, and turned on his old computer. I started over my old game and played on the Peaceful level for an hour. In three game days I found coal, made torches, and made a 5 by 8 house of cobblestone with a glass roof and windows. I felt very accomplished.

After lunch I continued my game. I found a cave and, despite the scary ambient noises, went exploring. I found a boatload of iron and melted it down to make myself armor. Once the default clothes on my character had been covered by my shiny new duds, I decided I would become bold. I turned the game to easy, and come nightfall I climbed into what was now a two-room structure for the night. I climbed my ladder onto the roof and began to scan the darkening world for signs of movement. I was on a plateau where the ground sloped on all sides of me, and could see fairly far in all directions.

Then I heard the skeletons approaching. I stood petrified on the roof of my house, unable to make my fingers move the character on the screen. An arrow hit me. I pressed escape, quit the game, and left the room.

The next day, after lunch, I found myself back at the computer. Minecraft was difficult to stay away from. I set the game to Peaceful again before starting and focused on the building aspect of the game, the part I found most fun. I quit two hours later, knowing that Jamie would come looking for me if I disappeared for two long, after making a fortress on the beach out of glass. My chosen building material on Minecraft was glass.

When I wasn't playing Minecraft, I found that I spent most of my time downstairs anyway. The sitting room had two large bookshelves stocked with books, and many of them seemed interesting. I didn't foresee needing to go to the library while stranded at my Dad's house this summer. Minnie once sat down on the couch next to me while I was reading. She stared at me for a little while, then I stuck my tongue out at her and she ran away.

Thursday evening I was reading when I heard Asher animatedly swear from his game room. Curious, I investigated, and saw him frantically typing in the chat screen on his game. I waited politely behind him until it seemed safe to ask what had happened.

"Three people died trying to dig down to the next gemstone. It's well guarded – there are monster spawners all around the cave it is in. A total of eight people have died this week alone . . ."

"Can't they just come back in a week?" I asked.

"A week in real life is weeks in the game. I need those players now . . ." Asher moaned. He then seemed to freeze, and glanced over at me. "Wanna play?" he asked.

I backed into the wall in my haste to get away. "Are you kidding? No! Your server is on Hard!"

"I know you've been playing Minecraft while I'm at work-"

"I would be useless on your server. I won't – I can't – fight things. I just run around building things and jumping into the ocean from the side of cliffs for fun. I would be useless," I repeated, trying to stress the point.

"Nobody is useless. If you don't want to fight things you could be a town worker. They're the players who kill pigs and mind the furnaces. At night you could either stop playing or just hide away in a safe house somewhere. I wouldn't judge you for that. In the day you could build, explore, and stuff."

I said nothing, thinking silently. A part of me wanted to try going on Asher's server, scary as it would be. I didn't mind the fact that I would be the local cook – it would give me a definite goal in the game to complete each day. It would be fun.

"Oh fine, I'll play."

**

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Author's Note:** Well, what do you think? I'd love any feedback on the story. I'm not exactly sure when I'll have the next chapter ready, but I cannot stand half-finished stories so I will not simply forget about this or anything.

I suppose I should also say that I am basing this story on Minecraft as it is and will be, though because I have never played on multiplayer a lot of it will be somewhat made up. I will do my best to keep things realistic, but please bear with me if my imagination gets carried away.


	2. Spawning

**Minecraft: Commence in Zero**

**Chapter Two – Spawning

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**

"Why can't I play on your server now?" I asked, unable to get over the fact that Asher wanted me to wait before I was allowed onto his server. I failed to see how it was fair that he had gotten me all excited about playing only to tell me that I had to wait.

"Because you'd spawn in our starting fortress and not have any idea where to go from there," my stepbrother replied bluntly, almost as if hinting that his answer was supposed to be obvious. "Don't worry; you'll be able to play tomorrow. I'll find someone who can escort you from the spawn point to Amethyst Village."

I snorted with impatience. "Can't I just walk myself to the village place? You could tell me where to go-"

"Do you really want to risk not making each checkpoint by nightfall, Laurie?" Asher asked blankly.

My stomach knotted. "No, I guess not."

"I'll make arrangements for someone to pick you up," said my stepbrother as he turned back to his computer and began to type. "I'll tell you when I've made the necessary arrangements. Usually new people are brought in groups every two weeks, but since you're my stepsister I'm making an exception for you. By the way, when is your birthday?" Asher asked.

"In about two weeks . . ." I answered grudgingly. One of the reasons I had not wanted to come to Dad's for the summer was because I wouldn't get to have a birthday party with my friends. But Dad had said that he would take me to a place called Medieval Times to celebrate. There was apparently no Medieval Times within driving distance of my mom's house.

"Okay, that works. Your present from me will be a Minecraft account. Two people using the same account cannot be on the same server at once. Any particular name you want me to get you?"

I thought. "Glasswalker," I replied. My favorite part of Minecraft was walking atop a glass ceiling and looking down. I always felt as if I was floating.

"And if that name is taken? Should I make 'glass' part of it regardless?"

"Yeah, go with glass-something," I agreed. "But make it sound cool!"

"Will do," Asher said, turning back to his screen. "Now, will you type out answers to these questions? The post will be in my name, but I jotted a note about that at the top. Everyone who is part of the Project has to fill out an application in a thread on the Minecraft website. Just post it when you are done." Asher stood, and headed to the door. "Actually, let me read it before you post. I'll be back in a minute or two. I want to get a snack."

As Asher left, I took a seat in his emptied chair and looked at the questions I was supposed to answer. Since I didn't yet have an account name or a skin, I typed 'N/A' to both and then went onto the more thought-provoking questions after saying I had been playing Minecraft for roughly a week. I liked the game because I had nothing else to do at my dad's house, though somehow doubted Asher would be happy with that response. Instead, I wrote about how the building aspect of the game appealed to me and how I liked that it allowed for endless creativity. I answered most of the questions before Asher returned, and he calmly waited for me to finish before shooing me from his computer. Noticing that he had found pizza rolls, I tried to take them, failed, and then left to go fix myself some.

When I returned, Asher grinned at me. "Glasswalker it is," he said. "I'm looking for a skin you might like. What about this one?"

I moved to stand by Asher's computer, looked at his screen, and then shot him a rueful glare. "Not funny. I am _not_ one of those girls that wear pink. I don't want to look like a fluffy anime character."

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Asher mused, sounding pleased to have gotten such a response from me. He typed something into the search feature of the site he was on – a site devoted to Minecraft skins – and then a new set of results popped up.

"What about being a Minnie?"

Asher had typed 'cat' into the search box. Though I was beginning to think that Asher spent a little too much time isolated in his game room to get such amusement out of toying with me, I privately admitted that 'cat' was a huge improvement over 'pink and fluffy'.

"Wolf," I said simply, setting down my plate of pizza rolls and attempting to type the word into the search feature. Asher beat me to the action, and a variety of bloody werewolf skins came up. I managed to seize Asher's mouse and scroll to a simple gray one. "That," I said.

"Okay, I'll set it up on that computer for you," Asher said, switching to his old computer. I watched as he logged onto my account, telling me that the password was 'fluffy' (after which I threatened to hit him). He found the skin I wanted a second time, set it to my account, and then moved back to his own chair, allowing me to take a seat in mine. "There, you are all set up. You can use your account now. Again, I'll get back to you about when you can get on the server, but feel free to jump off cliffs in singleplayer for now."

"Thanks," I muttered, nonetheless sitting down and launching Minecraft to test out my new skin and account.

At exactly 12:30 the next day, I entered the address of Asher's server. He had found someone to take me to the Amethyst Village – someone with the account name Sohnek. When Asher had forwarded me this information, I had gone online to look at the application that Sohnek had posted in the thread discussing Asher's server on the Minecraft website. From that, I learned that Sohnek was my age. He had voluntarily put that he was fourteen in his application with the fact that he had been playing computer games since he was four.

I fell through clouds, raising an eyebrow as a hellish glitch briefly consumed the sky around me, before I found myself in a room made from cobblestone. It was four layers tall, the glass roof (I approved of the architecture) being the fifth layer. Torches were spaced every three blocks on the third layer from the ground, which was also made of cobblestone. A couple of the blocks, seemingly placed in abstract locations, were moss stone.

Immediately my text box filled with messages, and I set the game so that I would only see dialogue from those within fifty blocks of me. That removed everything but a single message.

Sohnek: _Boo_.

I looked around, and found that someone else had been standing behind me, likely knowing which direction I would initially face upon spawning. Sohnek's skin resembled Sonic the Hedgehog. As I slowly began to slowly formulate a greeting, several items flew from Sohnek's person: an iron sword, two pieces of cooked pork, and a complete set of iron armor.

Glasswalker: _Hello. I am the new town worker. My name is Glasswalker._

Almost immediately after I sent my reply, Sohnek sent me another message. He seemed to be a significantly faster at typing than I was.

Sohnek: _Take items. Condense your sentences, especially since you type slowly. When ready, follow._

How did Sohnek know that I typed slowly? I bit my tongue as I had my character grab all of the items thrown at me and wondered who he was to tell me what to do. Then I remembered that he was my defender until I was safely in the Amethyst Village – the safe-haven town created close to the location where the Amethyst would be discovered. One of Asher's additions to his server was a special compass that pointed in the direction of the next gemstone that was to be retrieved. After the Ruby (the gemstone that had been obtained most recently) had been secured, Asher had followed the point of his special compass until it had begun to spin wildly, and at that spot the Amethyst Village had been constructed.

Once I had rearranged all of my belongings and put my sword in my right hand, I followed Sohnek down a cobblestone hallway. On the way, I passed two passages that seemed to lead to storage rooms, though when I paused to look into them Sohnek obnoxiously moved to dart in front of my face.

Sohnek: _Sun is going down!_

Narrowing my eyes at the blue hedgehog, I followed Sohnek to the end of the hallway and out a set of two wooden doors. The reason I had been supposed to spawn at exactly 12:30 was because the server had daylight from :10 to :20, :30 to :40, and :50 to :00 of each hour. Sohnek, holding a bow in his right hand, promptly turned left and headed in the direction of a vast desert. Presently we were on the edge of a forest.

Sohnek: _Run from any creepers. I shoot._

Since I hadn't been playing with monsters when I played on singleplayer, I hadn't actually encountered a creeper before. I knew what they looked like and what they did, courtesy of the Internet and watching Asher play, but I hadn't ever seen one on my own screen.

Entering the desert, I noticed that Sohnek and I had passed several signposts – stacks four cobblestone blocks tall with signs giving directions on all four sides. Like before within the spawning fortress, when I tried to stop to look at the signposts Sohnek obnoxiously tried to edge me on by bouncing around my face. I resigned to following him again as suddenly my ten health points became seven and a half. It was noon.

Sohnek: _Eat pork now._

I ate a piece of cooked pork, and my health returned to me. Rotating, I began to follow Sohnek across the last stretch of endless desert, but not before I spotted something moving in the distance. I spun around to get a better look, squeaked, and then turned to see what Sohnek was doing. He had continued on without me. I hurried after him.

Every few seconds, I glanced backwards: the creeper was following Sohnek and me. Sohnek was oblivious. I wanted to tell him, but I was sure that if I stopped to type, even to type a single word, the creeper would get closer to me than I was comfortable with and Sohnek would end up too far away from me to do anything.

We crossed the boundary leading from the desert and entered a mountainous forest. The creeper was still following me, almost as if it had locked onto my character. Something within me wondered if Minecraft monsters locked onto players – that would explain why it had been chasing me for so long.

I tried to push the creeper to the back of my mind and focused on climbing: Sohnek and I had to scale a small hillside, mostly dirt blocks with a few cobblestone stairs placed erratically along the path that travelers were expected to take. But, for the most part, we were bouncing up level after level. This bouncing allowed the creeper to draw closer and closer to me . . .

Finally, I couldn't take having the walking green cactus on my tail anymore. I brought up the text box and painstakingly began to type. C-R-E-E-P-E-R.

Sohnek turned around, then an arrow whizzed by my character. I turned around and saw that Sohnek had begun to attack it. Bouncing closer, I did my best to flee, climbing to a small plateau and turning back to watch as the creeper neared Sohnek. I heard a strange sizzling sound, but before I had made the connection that the creeper was sizzling it exploded. My stomach flipped – _the explosion from the creeper hadn't killed Sohnek, had it?_

Then I centered my screen on Sohnek again and saw that he was very much alive as he darted about collecting the blocks unearthed by the creeper. He paused and looked down what appeared to be a hole in the ground in the impact crater that the creeper had created, even taking advantage of the sneak feature of the game to get a better view.

After Sohnek moved away from the hole, he paused. A moment later his messages appeared in my text feed.

Sohnek: _Someone made this and hid it with dirt. I want to explore._

I was quite aware that the sun would set soon on the game. I typed as quickly as possible, using a crude phrase by sacrificing my parlance for speed.

Glasswalker: _I go ahead?_

Sohnek: _Yes, do. I will meet you. Follow the path to the checkpoint; easy to find. Close by._

The world around me began to darken. I didn't waste any time – turning and running in the direction of the checkpoint while Sohnek climbed into his silly little hole in the ground. For the most part, the path was obvious – I just followed the cobblestone stairs until I caught sight of a small building atop a cliff in the distance. A ladder led up the cliff led to a door one block away from the edge. I made it into the building just as darkness overwhelmed the game, my heart pounding and my fingers shaking with nervousness. Moving my character to the middle of the one-room checkpoint, I leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes to rest. Then it occurred to me to let Sohnek know that I had reached the checkpoint. I did so. He did not respond.

After a minute of slowly spinning my chair in a circle, I had my character look around the checkpoint. It was illuminated with torches, made of cobblestone, and had two doors – the one I had come through and one leading out the opposite side of the building. Someone had enjoyed himself or herself framing in a small yard in the front with fencing, torches and flowers. Inside the checkpoint, two double-size chests held modest supplies and small amounts of food. I took an extra piece of cooked pork, knowing that all players were advised to carry two pieces on them at all times in case of an emergency. Crossing the room, I encountered a sign on the wall. It said 'murder holes below.'

A hole in the ground was beneath my character. I looked down, and saw that there was a lit basement beneath the checkpoint. I climbed down, lacking anything else to do until Sohnek rejoined me. Briefly, I began to wonder what he had found exactly and whether or not he had encountered monsters.

On that note, I heard growling. My initial reaction froze me, and I momentarily forgot to breathe, but I forced myself to relax with the knowledge that I was safe within the checkpoint. I inched forward down the underground tunnel, learning that it snaked around the exterior wall of the checkpoint. Every few blocks, an opening had been left. I hadn't a clue what these openings were for, though the regularity of their locations told me that they had been intentionally left unfilled.

Something growled for a second time, and I froze yet again as I saw something move around just beyond the hole directly in front of me. A zombie was outside, growling, and I could see its feet as it ran at the side of the checkpoint in search of a way inside. Tentatively, I pointed my sword at the zombie's lower half, and then poked it. The sword reached through the hole in the ground to hit the zombie. It flashed red, taking damage, and I squeaked, hoping that it wouldn't be able to find me now that I had revealed my location. But the zombie seemed just as unaware of the hole in the ground as it had been before, so I tentatively hit it again and again until it died.

Once the zombie had vanished, it took me a moment to realize that I had killed it. _I, who swore that the chilling growl of zombies on Minecraft was one of the most terrifying things in existence, had killed a zombie!_ I was infinitely pleased with myself. My first impulse was to scream upstairs for Asher until I remembered he was at work, so instead I brought up the text box and sent Sohnek a message.

Glasswalker: _I killed a zombie through a hole in the ground!_

As I waited for a response, I began to patrol the tunnels beneath the checkpoint, checking all of the holes as I passed them in search of more feet to attack. Finally, after what seemed like ages, Sohnek showed some sign of life. I had known that he was still alive because I hadn't gotten a message saying that he had been killed, though it was good to know that he was in a safe enough position to type.

Sohnek: _Yay you. Heading to checkpoint ATM._

Through the holes in the ground, I saw the Minecraft world gradually begin to brighten. Knowing that the sun was coming up, I headed from the underground passageways back upstairs, glancing at the sign labeling the entrance again as I moved to the center of the room.

"Murder holes, eh?" I said to myself. "I like those things."

Sohnek entered the checkpoint – I could see him coming because his name showed up through some of the surrounding blocks. He immediately headed over to one of the chests, probably to get some food, and then headed for the wooden door. Knowing that we had another checkpoint to make before nightfall, Sohnek headed out the wooden door, then ran in a circle until I'd followed him out and closed the door behind me. We then pressed onward after he sent me the following.

Sohnek: _Most of the server has mine carts for transportation. I'm actually surprised to find that nobody laid a path to Amethyst Village._

I decided against answering (not that Sohnek's virtual character minded, being perfectly happy to run ahead of me) and followed Sohnek over two mountains, a small forest, and around the side of a lake over the course of the next ten minutes. The day was significantly less eventful than the previous one, not that I was complaining. Sohnek and I reached the checkpoint before the world had darkened completely, and then, to pass the time until morning, we talked.

Sohnek wanted to know if I really had only been playing for a week. I said that I had, and then he asked why the Minecraft monsters scared me. My answer 'They just do' seemed to convince him to change the subject. Instead, we discussed the coolest ideas for structures that we could think of until the sun incinerated the pair of skeletons that had been bouncing outside a glass window shooting at the side of the checkpoint. Then, we continued on our final leg of our journey to the Amethyst Village.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I apologize an infinite amount of times for the delay. I feel awful that I made so many people wait for this, especially since I received such nice reviews on my first chapter. They all made me smile, so thank you to those who spared the time to leave them for me, and thank you to those who put this story on alert and favorited it. I hope the second chapter pleased everyone, and I promise to have the third chapter up within much less time.


	3. Amethyst Village

**Minecraft: Commence in Zero**

**Chapter Three – Amethyst Village**

* * *

Sohnek and I arrived at Amethyst Village at 1:17 pm. I was advised to disconnect and come back at 4:10 in the afternoon, when someone named Sevidracona would show me around the village. Bidding Sohnek goodbye, I went offline, leaned back against my chair for a few minutes, and then finished logging out of Minecraft and shut down the computer. I stole upstairs and participated in my daily small talk with Jamie, who somehow managed to convince me to help her weed the garden for an hour. Jamie loved her little backyard garden, and since I had been helping her willingly enough over the past few days she was under the impression that I liked gardening, too. I wasn't opposed to gardening. I was opposed to listening to Jamie detailing everything there was to know about carrots and rosebushes and whatever else was growing in the various beds all over the yard, though I was unable to bring myself to vocalize this fact.

Around four in the afternoon I dropped what I was doing to head back into the basement. Switching into Minecraft mode, I recounted my earlier exploits and my first impression of Amethyst Village: the entire village was walled off with cobblestone. Someone had been patrolling the wall, which was a good eight blocks tall, and there had been torches seemingly everywhere. A pair of doors leading into what was jokingly labeled as a 'decompression chamber' led to a second pair of doors, which led into the village. Before Sohnek had advised that I take a break until the village head, Sevidracona, logged on, I had absorbed as much of the village as I could. It had a checkerboard layout, with buildings of all sorts on neatly allotted plots. I had seen signposts everywhere and at least half a dozen other users running around. My communication feed had updated constantly. Some of the people running around Amethyst Village had greeted me.

I logged back onto Asher's server at roughly 4:12, wanting to return to Amethyst Village after all of the monsters that made invading it their nightly hobby had burned up in the sun. Respawning where I had disconnected earlier, I looked around, watching as someone in a black and purple skin with white splotches that reminded me somewhat of stars ran toward me. A few paces behind the player was a white dog-like creature wearing a red collar. The name above the character identified her as Sevidracona.

Sevidracona: _You're late. Follow me._

I stifled a mortified squeak, not at all prepared for Sevidracona's snappy words. I followed her and her wolf (a creature I had encountered a couple of times on singleplayer though had been unable to tame due to my lack of bones) through the village. She soon paused, prodding at the air to indicate that I was to read the signs tacked to the multi-story cobblestone building before us.

"Amethyst Village Library – logs, maps, adventure notes, server information. Do not edit books or take them. Put them back where you found them."

After Sevidracona seemed to have decided that I had been allotted enough time to read, we passed the several exotic, creative structures. The signs tacked onto posts and the sides of these buildings identified them as players' personal dwellings. **(**The most interesting of these structures was built atop some trees, though I didn't get the time to look that I desired. Unlike Sohnek, who seemed to radiate a good mood even when jumping in front of me, Sevidracona's character seemed to move stiffly, and the way she constantly chimed '_Glasswalker!_' when I paused to sightsee reminded me of an army drill sergeant scolding a misbehaving private. I missed Sohnek, and rued the fact that he had been required to forgo showing me around Amethyst Village because his mom was taking him somewhere not divulged.**)**

After showing me the library, armory, and construction complex**,** (the place where I was to pick up any building materials needed for personal use within reason), Sevidracona stopped in front of a sandstone building that was twice the size of most of the other buildings we had passed, taking up two lots rather than just one. The signs over the metal doors (which were opened by pressing annoying little buttons – I had experimented with metal doors unsuccessfully in singleplayer a few times before becoming frustrated and deciding that wooden doors would work fine for my designing needs) labeled the place as the cafeteria.

"Daily allotments of pork, morning replenishment, and journey preparation," I read aloud. "This must be my work station . . ." I then muttered to myself as Sevidracona sent me a message.

Sevidracona: _You will work here. Follow me inside._

I watched as Sevidracona easily made it into the building by pressing the button beside one of the metal doors. Biting my tongue, I tried to do the same, and failed several times before I noticed that the door had opened on its own – during which the panicked wolf had darted into the building (partially being pushed by me in my own frantic attempt to enter) after being separated from its master. The door closed just as quickly, then opened again. I hurried into the building and encountered Sevidracona in the small torch-lit entranceway. She had pushed the button on the inside of the building to allow me entry in the same manner she had allowed entry to her mutt. Feeling humiliated, I followed Sevidracona to the left and around the corner into a hallway filled with chests located to my right spaced one block apart from each other. The two of us ran down the short, narrow hallway, then turned right to find another hallway with even more chests. As I scampered up and down the hallway, glancing at the chests and the signs above them, Sevidracona paused to speak to me in sentence-long bursts.

Sevidracona: _Everyone on the server has their own chest for food storage. We all must eat at least 2.5 hearts a day. The signs should be accurate and tell whether or not the person is stationed here and still alive. If they aren't here then they don't need a daily ration. Travelers are responsible for updating their own signs. Being in charge of the village, if anyone was ever banned I would come and remove their chest._

As Sevidracona started to move again, I followed, doing my best to retain all of the information she had given me. At the end of the long hallway to the right was another short hallway. It seemed that the individual chests were laid out along the outside of the building. When we had snaked around to the entrance once more, I followed Sevidracona into the interior of the building. More chests lined the walls, along with a row of signs.

"The food in this room is free for all. To be used in the morning and taken before traveling. Do not abuse your right to take free food," I read.

Sevidracona: _Your goal is to give everyone stationed here 2 cooked porks or equivalent food every day you are here before noon. People will come for their daily rations after that time. No chest is to have more than 6 items of food. If people don't eat, that is not your problem. The extra food you have goes in the chests here. Food is organized by type, as labeled._

Turning, Sevidracona moved across the room and up a set of cobblestone stairs to the second level of the building. I found myself in one giant room, with two rows of four ovens and dozens of chests placed haphazardly around the room, which, like everything else in Minecraft, was lit with torches. There were plenty of glass windows spaced evenly throughout the room**,** as there had been in the outer room on the first level.

Sevidracona: _Raw materials and unsorted cooked food is kept here. There should be some coal, and if you run out then take more from the armory. Feel free to reorganize. We haven't had a permanent food person in two weeks, so whoever is here has been doing the cooking._

I struggled to quickly type the answer to a question that had been floating around my mind.

Glasswalker: _What about the virtual days when I am not here? How do you eat?_

Not surprisingly, Sevidracona's response echoed stiffly in my mind.

Sevidracona: _That is what the food in the center of the building is for. Ideally there will always be an ample amount for when people run out of stuff in their personal chests._

Sevidracona then moved back downstairs, and I followed her once more. She led me out of the building and down to the edge of the village. A grassy plot faced us as we stopped. A sign stood in the center, claiming that it was reserved for Glasswalker. I couldn't help smiling at the sight. That twenty by twenty block spot was for my own personal use.

Sevidracona: _You can build here in your free time. I'll leave you now. Say hi to Ash for me._

"Ash?" I muttered aloud, watching as Sevidracona disappeared down the road. When he returned from work, I'd have to call him Ash to see if I got a reaction – providing that I remembered to do so. As I lost 2.5 hearts, I became aware that it was noon on the game and that I was supposed to be cooking pork in exchange for being allowed onto my stepbrother's server. Putting my sword in my right hand, I began to run around the grass roads in between all of the buildings in search of pigs. Cows swarmed me, and I began to wish unpleasant things upon them until I finally located a spawning of pigs. From four of them, I obtained five pieces of pork. Pleased with myself, I began to head back to the cafeteria. On the way, someone wearing what appeared to be a Pikachu skin (they was wearing iron pants and a helmet, so I couldn't be sure) named Bramboom jumped in front of me, tossed several red mushrooms in my direction, and then ran off. I stared after the player, amused, and then picked up the mushrooms. Soup was made from mushrooms – if there were any brown ones sitting in the attic of the cafeteria I could make some.

Once I had successfully made it back into the cafeteria**,** (stupid metal door), I checked the large chests of the center room and found that there was enough food for a few game days without me replenishing supplies. I had time to orient myself. Darting into the attic, I checked the contents of the chests up there: Five pieces of uncooked pork, six red mushrooms, (were the brown ones extinct – weren't those more common?) a few buckets of milk (what on earth was I supposed to use milk for?) and seventy pieces of coal. I dumped the pork I had gathered in one of the chests and then headed back outside. Once I gathered a good ten more pieces I figured I would do some cooking. Also,I wanted to pick up a new sword from the armory; I was sure I would wear down the one Sohnek had gave me sometime soon.

Once outside, I did my best to recall where the armory was and then headed off. On the way, I killed two pigs, procured two pieces of pork, and found an egg floating by a pair of chickens. Now that I was thinking about it, milk and eggs were used to make cake on Minecraft . . . I wondered if I would get cake on my birthday, which wasn't that far off . . .

I realized that my mind was wandering and struggled to get my attention back to the game. I didn't appear to be anywhere near the armory. In fact, I was by the wall. Turning, I scanned what I could see of the area, jumping for more height, in search of a familiar landmark. The tree house I had wanted to look at earlier was the tallest structure in the village, towering high above the single-story, two-story, and occasional three-story structure. If my memory was correct, I had seen the tree house before the armory – if I made it there, I should, theoretically, be able to retrace my steps down the tour path Sevidracona had shown me. I headed off, killing five pork chops worth of pigs before arriving.

After allowing myself adequate time to walk around the tree house from the outside, I found that it was surprisingly creative. Nine trees made up the foundation. Their tops had been shaved off to allow for a dirt room to be built above them. Atop that room were four more trees, growing from the dirt, supporting a second, smaller dirt room. Sprouting from the top of that was a single tree that balanced one final, tiny cubic room. The largest room was accessible by ladder.

Finally, I searched for the sign denoting the builder of the fantastic tree house. In my eyes, it put many of the structures I had built to shame. When I failed to find a sign, I ventured onto the plot of land, which was illuminated by ground torches since the trees cast a permanent shadow that would provide a monster spawning ground if unlit, looked in vain for a sign, and then finally worked up the courage to climb the structure.

After letting myself through the 'anti-zombie chamber' and closing the door that kept monsters out of the house, I eagerly looked around. The inside of the first level was simply and humbly furnished: chests, a bed, stairs and signs that had been turned into imitation chairs, andpictures on the walls. Then, I found what I was looking for, and bit my lip to stifle a gleeful laugh.

"This is Sohnek's house!" I mused to myself. "I should have known – he did say something about liking to build on the tops of trees earlier."

My curiosity satisfied for the time being, I headed back outside. For a moment, I couldn't do anything other than freeze and panic as I noticed the server world darkening rapidly. Eyes darting to the clock on my computer, I saw that nighttime was scheduled to fall.

"Crap – I'm nowhere near the cafeteria and my sword is about to break! Crap, crap, crap . . ." I began to repeat over and over. The autopilot in my fingers took over, saving my character by moving her back into Sohnek's empty house. He wouldn't mind if I hid in his place for the night, surely. I made sure the door leading to the anti-zombie chamber was securely closed before running up to the nearest window. I couldn't see enough to please my frantic, overreacting mind as the thought 'You're defenseless and alone!' kept flashing through it. I needed to know what was going on outside. I needed a better view . . .

I hurried up to the second level of Sohnek's house and then the third. That put me at the highest point in Amethyst Village. From my present point, I could see everything. There appeared to be eight or twelve other people online in my proximity, and from what I could see they had all flocked to the outer wall and were defending it from there. Spiders could reach them, but otherwise they seemed to be shooting down anythingthat came to close to the wall. At first glance, I assumed the village interior to be safe, but then I noticed something moving, followed by another something. Leaning closer to the computer screen, I struggled to find a username floating above the moving things. Failing, I then glumly accepted the truth. Somehow a pair of zombies had spawned within the walls of Amethyst Village.

"Great . . . I don't want to wait here all night . . ." I muttered to myself. In the future, I would never be so careless as to trap myself somewhere I didn't aim to be trapped so that I could hide away and be productive rather than hide away and do nothing. The thought that I could be productive in my own way at night helped to alleviate the slight feeling of guilt I had for being unable to fight monsters on a hard multiplayer server.

Before heading back down to the largest room in Sohnek's tree house, I sought out my sandstone cafeteria and memorized the path back to my destination. The zombies were halfway across the village, but the knowledge that they were out there somewhere sent a bit of a shake into my fingers. I stood before the door, wondering if I should take the risk, before finally acting. I went through the door, accidentally whacking the wall a few times before I managed to close it behind me again, and then dropped down the ladder into Sohnek's yard. Sword in my right hand, I began to run through the streets, heart pounding and vision tunneling from the adrenaline running through me.

A growl.

I stopped breathing, though my hands continued to play the game. Unblinking, I had my gaze fixed on the cafeteria, now within my sight on the game.

A second growl.

I remembered to breathe again, but began to hyperventilate as I failed to make it into the cafeteria. The stupid metal door! Who on Earth had thought it was a good idea to put metals door leading into most of the buildings? Zombies couldn't open doors! _I_ couldn't open metal doors!

Clank.

"And there's a skeleton now?" I hissed, my fear morphing into a form of bemused disbelief. An arrow hit me. Somehow, the hit was all I needed to successfully scamper through the metal door before it closed again. After that, I was still for a moment, resisting the urge to twitch as I heard arrow after arrow hit the side of the cafeteria. Slowly, I smiled, then reached forward to take control of my momentarily abandoned character once more.

I was still alive, and I had made it across Amethyst Village alone, nearly unarmed, in the dead of night. It occurred to me as I hurried up the stairs to start my ovens that I really did like Minecraft.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I am, again, sorry that this took so long to post. I really do believe that I will be able to have future chapters up within reasonable amounts of time because of how the spring semester is almost over. I should have more free time in the summer, and thus will be writing a lot more.

As usual, thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! I'm delighted that so many people like this story – I had no idea it would be so popular! I hope that I am living up to everyone's expectations with this chapter.

Also, many people have been asking (in reviews or otherwise) if Asher's server is real. The answer: No. Asher, like Laurie, is a fictional character born out of an impromptu urge to write. However, my story has inspired SRAblaze to make a server with mods that make it similar to Asher's. From what I understand, it's still in the beginning stages at the moment, but feel free to contact SRAblaze if you want more information. They know more about the server than I do.


	4. Building a Fortress

**Minecraft: Commence in Zero**

**Chapter Four – Building a Fortress**

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm sorry, guys . . . real life kinda decided it wanted to mess with my favorite hobby. I swear that I'm writing when I can, though. Also, Notch keeps making wonderful updates that don't quite fit in with the story, so kindly continue to pretend that pork is still the main food source in the Minecraft world instead of mushroom stew so Laurie isn't out of a job.

* * *

Saturday morning the weather forecast called for rain all weekend, so when I crept into the basement after Asher to play Minecraft my dad couldn't find a reason to criticize. What was I supposed to do rather than play Minecraft – go outside and play in the yard? It was already pouring outside. Even Minnie, who usually spent a good part of her time clawing at Asher (during the times when he was actually home) to take her outside to sniff plants, showed no interest in the outside world that day.

I played on Asher's server, on and off, for most of the day. Breaks were necessary to eat, play with Minnie, talk to my mom on the phone, et cetera. Having only joined the server the day before, I was quite proud of my accomplishments. I had managed the foundation of a building that was to be made entirely out of glass while keeping up with the duties that were expected of me as a town worker. I had even amounted a small surplus of cooked pork, much to Asher's approval. When Sevidracona logged on mid-afternoon she also expressed her approval. It was then that I remembered something from the day before.

"Oh, Asher, why did Sevidracona call you 'Ash' yesterday?"

"Because that's her nickname for me," Asher replied bluntly, his voice lacking the emotion I had hoped to read in order to get a better idea of why a seemingly random player had a nickname for him.

"Why does she have a nickname for you?" I persisted.

"Anette goes to the same college as me. I know her in person. She seems to think that 'Asher' is too long of a name."

Though I considered myself an only child, the inspiration to take on the role of an annoying little sister suddenly struck. "So . . . do you like this Anette girl? Is she cute?"

"We're just friends," Asher said without looking away from his screen. He was, unfortunately, good at holding a conversation without making eye contact.

"You didn't answer my second-"

I was cut off, because at that point an automated message flashed across both Asher's and my screens. The next gemstone, the Amethyst, had been located. I knew that meant a player had gotten close enough to see it. However, before I could truly comprehend what had just happened, a second message flashed across my screen: a skeleton had killed Thundyr.

"Aww, really?" Asher groaned, managing to censer his language. My dad had casually remarked that he swore too much at dinner the other day. It was his way of scolding his stepson for cursing so much around me when playing Minecraft or otherwise. "At least we know where it is now . . . Thundyr will post that information on the forums."

"But he or she won't be back for a week, right?" I asked.

"No," Asher replied. "Gah, so many people are asking me questions at once now . . ."

Turning back to my computer, I saw that the text box was full of questions. Players wanted to know what to do now that the Amethyst's exact location had been discovered. Who was going to retrieve it? How would they arm themselves? When would they leave? Who would go to make the fortress that would be used for its protection?

"This is ridiculous," Asher grumbled. I watched him type something quickly – he was an amazingly fast and accurate typist – and then turned to my screen to read what he was saying to everyone in sentence-long chunks.

Asherforce: _Please, stop spamming the feed. Here's what we're going to do. A team of four will travel from here and set up the Amethyst's Fortress. They will take supplies and depart immediately. Everyone else will be divided into teams to tackle clearing the cave of monsters. When it's safe we'll plan the actual retrieval._

The barrage of questions from everyone currently online slowed significantly. I turned back to Asher once more. "Can I go to help build the Fortress, or am I needed in the Village?" I asked.

I must have surprised Asher, because he actually spared me a glance before responding. "I suppose you could go with the others picked to build the Amethyst's Fortress. There's enough food for a little bit, and if we run out of stuff in the cafeteria players do tend to manage to feed themselves on their own one way or another."

"Really?" I said, surprised that Asher was letting me go so easily.

"Err, I just said so. Why would I lie to your face?" Asher asked me rhetorically before beginning to type again. He was asking for some volunteers to build the new fortress. When it was appropriate to do so, I hastily submitted the message '_Pick me – I want to go!_' into the feed.

Asher found three more volunteers quickly enough. Their names were Musocrasie, SaturnTHREE, and RoCkEt250. Asher assigned SaturnTHREE as team leader of our group and then told us to '_Get lost and build that fortress._'

I gathered with Musocrasie, SaturnTHREE, and RoCkEt250 in the cafeteria after locating SaturnTHREE and following her there. I assumed that SaturnTHREE was a female because her skin was that of a Sailor Moon character – or at least reminded me vaguely of that old television show. Musocrasie constantly bounced as he ran, and he had a black and white striped skin. Though he (at least, I decided to go with the male gender in my head) wore a couple pieces of leather armor, I was fairly sure his skin was black and white stripes throughout the entire character. RoCkEt250 had the most interesting skin of the three, however. It looked as if it had survived a paintball war, with splashes of every color imaginable making it impossible to see the base color, (if there even was a base color at all). At SaturnTHREE's request, we set our chat feeds so that we would only be able to see and receive messages from one another, and then began to plan.

The plan: Get outfitted in iron armor, each carry five pieces of food, and then use whatever inventory spaces weren't occupied by tools and other stuff for building blocks.

SaturnTHREE: _I'm three hours behind the server. I could stay online for a little while if everyone wants to start now. Can you guys stay online?_

Musocrasie: _Yeah_.

RoCkEt250: _I'm an hour behind the server, but I figure I'm able to stay for a bit._

As words flashed across the bottom of my screen, I turned to Asher. "The others want to try and start building now. Think anyone would care if I stayed online for a couple hours or so?"

"Lewis would care, but he won't do anything about it. My mom won't do anything if it bothers her," Asher replied. "I'll probably be logging off myself after another day. I'll need to do some forum moderation after this mess."

I turned back to my computer, and hastily typed.

Glasswalker: _I think I'm allowed to stay online._

SaturnTHREE: _Cool, everyone. Assemble at the front gate at dawn in twelve minutes or so. It's almost night – we'll leave right after that._

We scattered. I headed up to my attic, rid myself of unnecessary inventory items, and then picked up some pork before heading outside. Night was falling, but by this point I was no longer afraid to dart short distances in the dark. Amethyst Village was very well lit up, and after the first night that I had spent on the server others had noticed a dark spot and spewed torches. I hadn't encountered a monster within the walls at night since.

I spent the next ten minutes acquiring two new iron swords, a couple of shovels, a pickaxe, and building supplies. (My armor was barely hurt, since I was careful not to jump off of tall things and tended to avoid combat at night.) I did have to don my armor, though, before going to meet the others who were heading out. Though there was no real rule telling everyone to do so, the majority of players did not wear their armor unless they were engaging in an activity that required protection. Since I killed pigs for a living, I had taken my armor off almost immediately when I'd entered Amethyst Village.

SaturnTHREE: _Ready?_

I followed Musocrasie, SaturnTHREE, and RoCkEt250 out of Amethyst Village. It had been decided that we would go north – that area of the server was somewhat unexplored, thus deemed a good location for one of the Gemstone Fortresses. The landscape quickly shifted to a wide savanna, though in the distance we could see ocean. The journey went smoothly as we headed for the water. According to SaturnTHREE, we were going to have to travel at night, and that after about twenty minutes of movement (around the time morning came again) we would survey our surroundings and pick a place to build. I bit my lip grudgingly as the others agreed to SaturnTHREE's plan. I did not want to travel at night . . .

A few minutes before darkness would fall, we reached the ocean. I scanned it, and saw a small sandy, sloped island with a dozen or so trees a good thirty seconds or so from our present location. SaturnTHREE must have also liked the looks of the island, and I couldn't help grinning cheekily at my screen. Asher glanced at me, no doubt wondering why I'd felt the need to chuckle to myself. He had long ago darted offline and was scanning the forums for his server. Minnie had managed to seat herself on his lap and was purring somewhat obnoxiously.

SaturnTHREE: _Any objections to using this island? It seems like an epic spot for a fortress._

I slowly began to type. My other traveling companions also commented.

RoCkEt250: _It's kind of close to Ruby Village. Maybe 4 min. away._

Musocrasie: _Is good._

Glasswalker: _I think it's a perfect place to build. Can we please stay here?_

RoCkEt250: _We should ask Asherforce if it's too close to the Ruby stuff…_

"Hey, Asher, is it okay that the fortress for the amethyst will apparently be four minutes away from Ruby Village?" I asked quickly, watching as SaturnTHREE asked RoCkEt250 how he planned to get in contact with Asher and biting back a chuckle.

"Not really. We do try to space things out a bit more than that, but you guys can essentially build wherever you want. I'm not the server's dictator you know."

"Cool," I muttered, beginning to type and telling the others '_Asherforce says we can build here._'

Musocrasie: _Then I'll torch the place._

SaturnTHREE: _Oh, true, you two are related somehow. Then let's start. But yeah, let's add light so we don't have to deal with monsters._

RoCkEt250: _Things will still swim here._

SaturnTHREE: _But they won't SPAWN here if we torch the place before nightfall. :P_

I put my pile of torches in my right hand and began to assist in 'torching' the island. The task went fairly quickly – the island was small. Darkness settled the server, and I began to assist in tree removal. A couple of chests were quickly constructed for storage. When there were only a few trees left, SaturnTHREE and RoCkEt250 began to chip away at the center of the island to make a flat platform to build off of. Every minute or so, a monster or two invaded the island. I'd clinch my teeth, and lowered the volume on my speakers so that I could barely hear the growls and clanking that accompanied their appearance. Usually Musocrasie was quick to take them out – he had great aim with his bow. Once a creeper managed to reach SaturnTHREE, destroying a good chunk of the platform she had been working on at the time. But we – _I_ – survived the night even though we were fairly exposed, and as I looked toward the mainland and saw burning figures I couldn't help sighing with relief.

Taking advantage of the daylight, I took the chance to look at what I had been helping to build for the past ten minutes. The four of us had cleared the island of trees, created a plateau in the center of the island, covered the plateau in two layers of cobblestone, and then began to outline some sort of simple maze atop it. According to SaturnTHREE, we would have three levels of maze and then the top floor of the fortress (which seemed to me as if it would resemble a tower instead of a fortress upon completion) would have the platform for the Amethyst. The work went quickly in the daytime with four people, though we weren't close to finishing by nighttime. However, we did reach a point where we began discussing how to design the top floor of the fortress. For the most part, I didn't participate in the discussions of my group. They tended to consist of SaturnTHREE having an idea, RoCkEt250 having a different one, and Musocrasie chiming in with the occasional '_I like that idea_' or '_No_.'

From what I could gather, top floor of Amethyst Fortress would be placed in the center of the room. SaturnTHREE and the others simply were looking for an interesting way to decorate the room, to seal off the special Minecraft item. Inspiration struck. I hit 't' and then began to type.

Glasswalker: _Can we fill the entire room with glass?_

Some of the others managed to type their responses before I managed to complete the second part of my statement.

Musocrasie: _I like that idea!_

SaturnTHREE: _Glass?_

Glasswalker: _When the gemstone is retrieved, they'd enclose it completely._

RoCkEt250: _I didn't bring glass. Anyone have any?_

Glasswalker: _Yes._

I had brought five stacks of glass from Amethyst Village. There was a lot of it up for grabs – apparently nobody else on the server was as much of a fan of building things out of solid glass as I was. Moving to stand before the others, I opened my inventory and then dropped three stacks of glass onto the ground. SaturnTHREE took one while RoCkEt250 grabbed the remaining two. Musocrasie ran directly past me, not interested in the glass as he headed off to kill a chicken that had just spawned on the island.

We built. Asher left his game room midway through our construction project, muttering that he'd check back online later. I stayed downstairs until we had finished. The fortress was a glorified tower, but it was a glorified tower that I had helped to build. Right as we were filling the top level with glass (making sure to leave a tunnel for the person who dropped off the Amethyst) RoCkEt250 had to disconnect. He said that he'd make it back to Amethyst Village on his own, that we could return without him.

"Laurie?" I heard my dad call a few minutes after that, right as SaturnTHREE, Musocrasie, and I were navigating through our own multilevel maze to exit the tower. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the basement!" I called back. I then hastily brought up the feed and began to type.

Glasswalker: _Have to leave now. I'd prefer not to be left here alone when I log back in._

SaturnTHREE: _I'll get off, too, then. Meet back at 2 tomorrow server time for the dash home?_

Musocrasie: _If you go at 3 then I'll come._

Glasswalker: _3 or 2, Sat3?_

SaturnTHREE: _3'll work, too. Will disconnect now. Great job._

I hastily disconnected from the server and then closed Minecraft. I was shutting down the computer when my dad walked into the room. He shot me a stiff glare and then turned around and left again. Holding back a slightly amused grin, I crept out of the room after him.

"Don't worry, I won't play that game again until three o'clock tomorrow afternoon?" I said cheekily.

My dad didn't respond, choosing to ignore me as he headed into the family room. I poked my head in there briefly, then consented to help Jamie set the table for dinner.


	5. The Ruby's Disappearance

**Minecraft: Commence in Zero**

**Chapter Five – The Ruby's Disappearance**

* * *

Sunday afternoon, eight minutes to three, I headed into the basement to play Minecraft. I sat down in my chair, pressed the power button on the computer, and then proceeded to spin in a circle as I waited for the dark monitor before me to glow with life. Two spins, nothing. By the fifth spin, my instinct began to tell me that something was off. I stopped, blinked at the computer, and then pressed the power button again, but the computer remained dark and lifeless.

"I don't understand – it was working yesterday! I was the last person on here . . ." I mumbled to myself. I began to violently shake the mouse on my computer, though I subconsciously knew that wouldn't do anything.

"Asher!" I called, giving up a moment later as I jumped out of my chair and then headed upstairs. "Asher, where are you?" I shouted again, hoping that my stepbrother was within earshot.

A muted "What?" came from the second floor of the house. I hurried to the bottom of the steps in the foyer and shouted again. "Were you on the computer I use for Minecraft today?"

"No," was the muted, blunt response.

"Oh, great," I mused to myself, heading back into the basement. Taking my seat once more, I tried to turn on the computer yet again, noting the time. I had lost three minutes thus far, and needed to be on the Minecraft server at three o'clock . . .

I began to panic, at a loss for why the computer refused to boot up. I hit the power button again, wiggled the mouse once more. At that point, something brushed up against my foot. I looked down and saw Minnie blinking affectionately up at me. She mewed once, voice soft, and then moved to sit on the pillow that Asher had placed in the corner under the table for her by stepping awkwardly over the tangle of cords coming out of the power strip at my feet.

"Wait . . ." I muttered. It suddenly occurred to me that the power strip might be the cause of my computer's lifelessness. I crawled onto the ground, under the table, and then began to inspect all of the cords. They were all plugged in, and the power cord was turned on . . . and yet there was no bright green light to signify as such. Inching forward, I trailed the cord belonging to the power strip. Not surprisingly, it was not plugged in.

"Why . . ." I muttered, propping myself up one hand so that I could use my free one to plug in the limp cord. A green light appeared on my power strip. I began to scoot out from under the table, leering at the cat as I did so. "Don't mess with the stuff down here, 'kay, kitty?"

I pushed the power button on the computer, and it finally began to start up. Minding my watch, I waited until the computer was fully awake before starting Minecraft. It was four minutes after by the time I connected to Asher's server.

SaturnTHREE: _You're late, Glassy._

Though it was painful to have the obvious pointed out, but I bit my tongue and typed out a hasty, vague apology to SaturnTHREE and Musocrasie.

Musocrasie: _We won't be able to make it back to Amethyst Village before nightfall._

Glasswalker: _…_

SaturnTHREE: _Then let's just swing by Ruby Village. Safe there at night._

I wanted to comment about how I didn't actually want to inconvenience anyone – that I'd somehow make it back to the village by disconnecting and reconnecting as many times as necessary to ensure that I only traveled in the daytime when the surrounding lands were monster free – but Musocrasie and SaturnTHREE, both significantly faster typists than me, seemed to have other thoughts.

Musocrasie: _I wouldn't mind picking up the stuff I left there, actually…_

SaturnTHREE: _Schweet. Let's go there then. Can show Glassy around during night. Funfun~_

SaturnTHREE started off in a seemingly random direction, and I felt unable to do anything aside from follow her and Musocrasie as they began to bounce through the water. As we were traveling, Asher wandered into the room, yawning. He mumbled some chastisement about how I'd woken him up from a nap and then sat down at his computer.

"Oh, thanks to your cat, I was late logging on. But it's all good – SaturnTHREE is taking me to see Ruby Village because we won't make it back to Amethyst Village before nightfall," I said.

"Minnie made you late?"

"Yeah, she unplugged the cord. I think."

"Oh, yeah, she may have tripped that up . . ."

On Minecraft, I'd followed SaturnTHREE and Musocrasie through a tunnel carved into the side of a mountain. As we'd moved, I'd cringed as the sound of bones echoed beneath me. I brought up the screen that showed both my coordinates and the number IDs of all the monsters on Minecraft and saw that there were a handful of scary things not too far beneath me. The knowledge that Asher, SaturnTHREE, and Musocrasie would laugh at me if I freaked out openly kept me from doing so; I bit my tongue and moved forward in silence.

After emerging from the tunnel, I'd followed my escorts up a sheer mountainside via a set of cobblestone steps (likely made from the cobble obtained from the construction of the tunnel) and then caught sight of Ruby Village. High on a plateau (which I was sure was partially artificial), I could see a high cobblestone wall with the occasional oversized home stretching above the crenellations. We moved over to the entrance, poked open the first set of doors, and then closed them behind us.

SaturnTHREE: _I'm gonna give Glassy a tour. Let's meet here as dawn comes._

SaturnTHREE's message appeared on my screen as it began to darken. Night was falling. Musocrasie took the initiative to dash ahead, likely to his old house or wherever he'd kept the belongings he reportedly wanted to retrieve. After bobbing up and town for a few heartbeats, assumedly doing her best to snag my attention, SaturnTHREE took off down the path directly ahead of us. Though my screen was now rapidly darkening, I could see that, on either side of the path, was a mixture of familiar community buildings (built identically to their counterparts in Amethyst Village) and houses. It was the houses that SaturnTHREE wanted to show me. She paused outside half a dozen, bouncing around their bases, sometimes boldly sneaking inside one of them for a few seconds. One house was a rainbow of wool, with a giant cat-face over the front porch. Another was made almost entirely of fences. As I began to wonder who would have risked such a design on a multiplayer server, where a single flame would engulf such a structure in minutes, SaturnTHREE urged me inside. Within I found a trapdoor leading into a basement that had been carved into solid rock. That was where the old owner of the house's chests lay forgotten, now empty of their contents and preserved only for memory's sake.

SaturnTHREE: _My old house was a planet – Saturn! Come see~_

I followed SaturnTHREE back out into the road, but we didn't make it very far. A server-wide notification flashed across my screen: The Ruby had been stolen.

Musocrasie: _ffffffff_

Immediately, SaturnTHREE changed direction, running up to the wall and climbing it. Following, I mirrored her as she ran along the top of the wall, avoiding the occasional arrow from the random skeletons waiting for us outside the village, until we caught sight of a dip in the land.

Meanwhile, the server was in a panic. Asher was muttering swear words under his breath, doing his best to calm everyone and best decide how to handle the situation. Monsters had stolen the Ruby and were now working to return it to its original location. Hadn't someone once told me that that place was somewhere in a pool of lava . . . ?

SaturnTHREE: _Me, Muso, and Glassy._

SaturnTHREE's line made no sense to me, until I remembered that I had blocked out most of the chatter on the server. I removed the block so that I could read posts by everyone, then glanced at the past conversation. Asher had asked who was closest to the Ruby's Fortress – who would be able to chase down the monsters before they plopped the Ruby back in its original location.

"Go. Now."

Asher typed into the Minecraft feed as he spoke to me. SaturnTHREE did not need to be asked twice, running once again along the wall of Ruby Village. Before following her, I stole another glance down into the valley. In the distance, I could see a burning tower – what remained of the Ruby Fortress. That was our new destination. It was dark. Monsters were out. But my fingers began to carry me there regardless . . .

Musocrasie met SaturnTHREE and me at the exit. Both armed themselves, and I mirrored them, running out into the wilderness a few steps after them. A skeleton began to shoot at Musocrasie, but he shot it down in a volley of arrows and then dodged over to pick up the extra ones and his prize of two bones. Recklessly, SaturnTHREE led Musocrasie and me over a cliff, though luckily our iron armor protected us from the extent of the drop. I fumbled in my inventory for a piece of cooked pork, stuffing it in my mouth as I ran to restore my lost health.

In the distance, I caught sight of something sparkling with light. It resembled a creeper, though appeared as if it was made of glowstone. A shuffle, and I became aware that Asher was leaning over to get a better look at my screen. "That's the thief," he informed me. "Kill it to retrieve the Ruby."

"Uh, uh . . ." I began to stammer, wondering if Asher really expected me to be able to simply walk up to anything dangerous in Minecraft and simply kill it. "I'd sooner stay back and repair the burning fortress . . ." I mumbled under my breath after a moment.

Asher moved back to his computer and quickly began to type. A moment later, his efforts flashed in my message box.

Asherforce: _Muso, Saturn, pursue the thief. Leave Glass your building stuff. She'll fix the fortress._

Immediately, I was bombarded by the remains of the building supplies in Musocrasie's and SaturnTHREE's inventories. There was so much stuff on the ground that I was unable to pick it all up again . . .

Musocrasie: _Have food for battle?_

I bit my tongue, beginning to feel overwhelmed. A zombie growled, but I was too frazzled to know – or care – whether the noise had come from my speakers or Asher's. I had six pieces of cooked pork in my inventory. Five of them were tossed in Musocrasie's direction, and with the space they opened up in my inventory I was able to pick up the remaining stacks of cobble and the handful of bones that had been thrown on my head earlier.

SaturnTHREE and Musocrasie then bolted, leaving me alone in the darkness. Fueled by a mixture of adrenaline and fear, I ran over to what remained of the once-burning fortress. The top part, where the Ruby presumably had been placed, had been made of wood, though other parts of the tower also looked as if they had deteriorated after the Ruby's disappearance. But, with enough time, I could easily fix it.

Something shot at me, and I hurried through the wooden door that the thief had left open, slamming it behind me. Now that I was in the fortress, I felt safer, regardless of how whomever had designed the place seemed to have intentionally left out the torches. Once I'd scattered a few throughout the fortress, I began to make my way up to what had been the interior tower, doing my best to replicate its original look with the materials I had on hand. Morning came, then noon, and I ate the one piece of cooked pork I had remaining so that I had nine hearts of health.

Darkness fell once more, and I began to wonder what had happened to Musocrasie and SaturnTHREE. I hoped that they were both okay, that nothing bad had happened to them. Then again, had they died, I would have been informed so by a server-wide message. By that logic, I assumed that they were safe.

By dawn, I was nearly finished reconstructing the fortress. It did not resemble its original state by any means (for I was fairly sure that its original state had not contained sandstone, though I lacked enough cobble to build with that alone) but it was fixed. I moved to stand by the front door, peering out into the fading darkness as I waited for the monsters in the surrounding area to burn.

It was then that I, unfortunately, received a universal server message. SaturnTHREE had perished.

I bit my tongue, afraid to meet Asher's gaze as I felt him turn to look at me. It became light enough to leave my hiding place, so I ventured forth in search of pigs to slaughter. By noon, I'd found enough to maintain my health and then some. When Musocrasie returned, I'd voluntarily toss it all to him if he needed it. _If Musocrasie ever returned . . ._

But then he did, running past me and into the reconstructed fortress without a second glance. A few moments later, I received a server-wide notification that the Ruby had been placed. It had been retrieved, and was now, once again, safe.

Afterward, Musocrasie appeared outside the fortress once more.

Musocrasie: _Food, Glassy, plox?_

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yeah, real life again . . . but I promise that, even though it might take me a while to update my stories, I vow not to ever become one of those writers who starts a story and then leaves it hanging. The entirety of this Fanfic is outlined. I just lack the time (and often motivation) to write it, hehe . . .

Anyway, Minecraft keeps changing still, but to avoid having to change basic plot points in the story halfway through some things, like the main food source being cooked pork, are just staying. Continue to think of Laurie's Minecraft as a slightly fanciful version, if you will, please.

As always, thanks for any and all reviews and comments – they do make me smile and I appreciate the time put into them all. Oh, and to address a question that has been posed a handful of times in reviews and messages: No, I do not own a Minecraft server.


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